Helping Ron
by Anoush
Summary: Okay, it's a little pompous of me, especially since I haven't read much further from that part yet, but it's my OC giving advice to Ron and Harry about Hermione. The italics at the top are JK's words. The rest of the story is mine. Chars may be OOC. Enjoy


_"Hi, Parvati!" said Hermione, ignoring Ron and Lavender completely. "Are you going to Slughorn's party tonight?"_

_"No invite," said Parvati gloomily. "I'd love to go, though, it sounds like it's going to be really good... You're going, aren't you?"_

_"Yes, I'm meeting Cormac at eight, and we're–"_

_There was a noise like a plunger being withdrawn from a blocked sink and Ron surfaced. Hermione acted as though she had not seen or heard anything._

_"– we're going up to the party together."_

_"Cormac?" said Parvati. "Cormac McLaggen, you mean?"_

_"That's right," said Hermione sweetly. "The one who _almost_" – she put a great deal of emphasis on the word– "became Gryffindor Keeper."_

_"Are you going out with him, then?" asked Parvati, wide-eyed._

_"Oh– yes– didn't you know?" said Hermione, with a most un-Hermione-ish giggle._

_"No!" said Parvati, looking positively agog at this piece of gossip._

_"Wow, you like your Quidditch players, don't you? First Krum, then McLaggen..."_

_"I like really _good_ Quidditch players," Hermione corrected her, still smiling. "Well, see you... Got to go and get ready for the party..."_

_She left. At once Lavender and Parvati put their heads together to discuss this new developement, with everything they had ever heard about McLaggen, and all they had ever guessed about Hermione. Ron looked strangely blank and said nothing. Harry was left to ponder in silence the depths to which girls would sink to get revenge._

A girl from the Ravenclaw table behind them let out a giggle, covering her mouth immediately and returning to her book.

The four Gryffindors turned around and looked at her, Parvati and Lavender annoyed, Ron still quite blank, and Harry a mix between confusion and curiosity.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked in a tone that mirrored his expression.

She glanced back at them hesitantly, before staring straight at Ron.

"Wow," she giggled again. "You _really_ must have pissed her off."

Ron scowled.

"What do you know?" he growled and spun back around abruptly.

"Hey!" she threw a bread roll at the back of his head. "When a girl talks like that, she means business. Talked to everyone but you. Therefore, by the divine powers of deduction, _know _everything."

Ron turned back around, still scowling.

"Wait, wait. If you're going to yell at me and tell me to butt out, then I don't want to hear it. If you don't want any help, it's your loss," she said, putting a hand up.

Harry furrowed his brow, "Help?"

He wanted Ron and Hermione to be friends again. Maybe this girl's thought of something he hadn't.

"That's what I said. But maybe advice is a better word."

"What kind of advice?" asked Ron, trying to sound uninterested.

"Well what'd you do?"

Ron blinked, "What'd I do?"

"Yeah, to upset whats-her-face."

"Hermione," he corrected stiffly.

"Hermione," she repeated apologetically. "I head something about a party. So it must have been something big for her to rescind on an invite."

"He got angry about some rumor," Harry put in.

The girl looked confused. She started to speak, then stopped, with another wave of confusion.

"Er, and then his sister was arguing with him, and he started snogging Lavender at a party-"

"Oi!" Ron hit Harry in the arm to stop the babbling.

The girl grinned.

"Oh..." she adjusted the book on her lap. "I see..."

"S-see what?" Ron asked, suddenly sober again.

"Well, obviously inviting you to this shindig meant something to her, and then, I assume, she catches you in the arms of another girl a day or two later? Because of the rumor, am I right?" she paused just long enough to take a breath, leaving any answer to the question lost in the air.

"And you never bothered to verify-OH! _Hermione_ Granger? The girl who went with Viktor Krum to the Yule Ball?"

Harry's eyes widened and he shook his head to stop her from continuing and Ron's face went red with anger.

"That's her," he said through gritted teeth.

The girl realized her mistake and turned a shade of pink herself.

"Right, sorry," she bit her lip. "It all makes sense now," she muttered to herself.

"Look, you hurt her feelings. Apologize," she said with a shrug. Then her eyes lit up as an idea popped into her head.

"Better yet! Ditch the girl you're with now and-" Lavender turned around, raising her eyes at the girl. She had been too busy gossiping with Parvati to know what Ron had been talking about until just now. If she had been standing, her hands would have been on her hips.

"You would be his girlfriend...?" the girl asked Lavender meekly.

"Yes I would. And I'll not have some Ravenclaw telling Ron what to do. Especially someone who," she looked the girl up and down, eyes stopping on the book, "obviously, doesn't know how to deal with relationships."

"My apologies," the girl bowed her head and turned back to her table.

"The nerve," supplied Parvati.

When the girl left her breakfast table, Harry followed her. Some other girls were around her, but when they say Harry, they hurried away, whispering to each other.

"You! Er-" he didn't know what to call her.

"Yes?" she asked vaguely, turning around tiredly. She straightened her slump when she recognized him.

"What? You having girl problems too?"

Harry hesitated. He was, very serious problems if he wasn't careful. But he could deal with those later.

"I'm only joking," she rolled her eyes. "Something I can do for you, Potter?"

"You, er, were about to say something before Lavender-"

"Right," she nodded. "He should do something nice for her."

"For Hermione?"

"Yeah, who else? And I still say that trying to get one girl while still being with another is not something that will make a girl say yes. Just, something that will be meaningful to her."

Harry thought about it. The girl looked him in the eye with her own.

"If that won't work, time will."


End file.
